Background Briefing: August 17, 2021

On By gram

 

$2 Trillion Blindly Spent on Afghanistan While a Half is Hotly Debated in the Senate Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill

We begin with the assurances coming from the Taliban that they will not engage in reprisal killings now that they have taken over Afghanistan but for the area around the Kabul airport where 6,000 U.S. troops will be guarding the perimeter inside of which are Western evacuees and desperate Afghans. It is not clear how those outside of the enclave will be able to escape given that the Taliban surround the area. Joining us to discuss how the killing of Bin Laden would have been a good time to declare victory and bring the troops home is Thomas Mockaitis, a Professor of History at DePaul University who has taught counter-terrorism courses for the past 13 years at venues around the world as part of the U.S. Department of Defense Counter-terrorism Fellowship Program. We discuss his article at The Hill, “Afghanistan’s collapse was swift, but it was a long time in the making” and how with little debate and Congressional oversight, we blindly spent $2 trillion on Afghanistan which is twice the amount that was hotly debated in the Senate bipartisan infrastructure bill many are celebrating.

 

The Current Pragmatism of the Taliban is Not to be Trusted

Then we go to the U.K. to speak with Dr. Sajjan Gohel, the international security director at the Asia Pacific Foundation who teaches in the Department of International History at the London School of Economics. He has provided in-depth reports on security issues to the EU, UNHCR, NATO, OSCE and Interpol and joins us to discuss how the current pragmatism of the Taliban is not to be trusted and that the 250 to 300 Al Qaeda terrorists in Afghanistan will soon see their numbers swell.

 

Earthquake in Haiti as the Judge Investigating Moïse’s Assassination Quits in Fear

Then finally we speak with Brian Concannon, a human rights lawyer and the Executive Director of Project Blueprint who is the Founder and former Director of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti. He joins us to discuss the devastation caused by Saturday’s earthquake followed by tropical storm Grace, and the resignation of the judge overseeing the murder investigation into the assassination of Haiti’s President Moïse whose court clerk showed up dead under suspicious circumstances.